Delete a record

Permanently remove a record by its sys_id.

When to use this pattern

• You're cleaning up test or imported data
• You're implementing retention rules for records your integration owns
• You're sure you want a hard delete — deletion is permanent, and cascade rules on the table may delete related records too

Required values

Value	Description
Table name	The record's table (for example, incident)
Record sys_id	The record to delete

Example

package main

import (
	"context"
	"fmt"
	"log"

	servicenow "github.com/michaeldcanady/servicenow-sdk-go/v2"
	"github.com/michaeldcanady/servicenow-sdk-go/v2/credentials"
)

func main() {
  // Step 1: Authenticate and initialize the client
  cred := credentials.NewBasicProvider("{username}", "{password}")

  client, err := servicenow.NewServiceNowServiceClient(
  	servicenow.WithAuthenticationProvider(cred),
  	servicenow.WithInstance("{instance}"),
  )
  if err != nil {
  	log.Fatalf("failed to initialize client: %v", err)
  }

  // Step 2: Delete the record by sys_id — this is permanent
  sysID := "{SysID}"
  if err := client.Now().Table("{TableName}").ByID(sysID).Delete(context.Background(), nil); err != nil {
  	log.Fatalf("unable to delete record: %v", err)
  }

  fmt.Printf("Deleted record %s\n", sysID)
}

Tips

• Delete returns only an error — no response body. nil means the record is gone.
• Deleting an already-deleted record returns core.NotFoundError; decide whether that's a failure for your workflow or an "already done."
• Prefer deactivating (active=false via update) when other records may reference this one.

Next steps

• Delete aging attachments: The same retention pattern, applied to files.